[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA, ARK., MONT., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

July 1



USA----federal death penalty

Pentagon seeks death penalty in Cole bombing----The destroyer Cole was
bombed during a refueling stop in Yemen. Authorities say the suspect in
the attack is also linked to the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa in
1998.


The accused, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, faces charges of murder and
conspiracy in the 2000 terrorist attack. He is being held at Guantanamo.


The Pentagon announced Monday it would seek the death penalty against a
Saudi Arabian accused of plotting the October 2000 terrorist attack on the
destroyer Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, whom officials allege was the Al Qaeda chief for
the Arabian Peninsula before his capture in 2002, faces charges of murder,
conspiracy, treachery and 5 other terrorism-related acts if the proposed
capital case is approved by the civilian head of the Guantanamo Bay war
crimes tribunal.

Nashiri was 1 of 3 terrorism suspects subjected to the controversial
interrogation tactic known as waterboarding while in secret CIA custody
abroad, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told Congress in February.

The procedure simulates drowning and has been deemed torture by human
rights advocates and most U.S. allies. Military interrogators and FBI
agents have renounced its use.

Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, was among 14 so-called high-value
detainees moved from secret CIA prisons to the detention facility at the
U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2006.

At his Combatant Status Review Tribunal six months later, a court-mandated
intake procedure for each prisoner after his arrival at Guantanamo,
Nashiri said that while in CIA custody he was tortured into confessing to
the Cole bombing and other acts of terrorism.

Evidence submitted to the March 2007 review also linked Nashiri to the
U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998 that killed at least 224
people. He was also said to have plotted the October 2002 attack on the
French supertanker Limburg in which a crew member was killed and 90,000
barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Aden.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, legal advisor to tribunal
Convening Authority Susan J. Crawford, was asked at a Pentagon news
conference on Monday how the government expected to convict Nashiri on
evidence that would be inadmissible in any other U.S. court. Hartmann said
all evidence, including the allegations of torture, would be addressed by
the tribunal.

Hartmann has spearheaded a drive by the tribunal to get high-profile cases
under way before the November elections. The advisor was disqualified in
May from one war crimes case after a judge ruled he lacked "independence
from the prosecutor function."

Nashiri would become the sixth Guantanamo prisoner facing the death
penalty if Crawford approves the charges drafted by prosecutors. He is the
20th Guantanamo prisoner to be identified for prosecution from among the
270 still detained there. The government has said it plans to bring
charges against as many as 80.

Calls for Guantanamo's closure have escalated after three Supreme Court
rulings accorded the foreign prisoners rights the military had argued
didn't apply to them because they weren't held on U.S. soil. A June 12
high court ruling held that the terrorism suspects had the right to
challenge their detention in U.S. federal courts -- an action that is
expected to result in the transfer or release of dozens of prisoners.

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union, said the ACLU would provide an experienced civilian defense
attorney for Nashiri to augment what he called "under-resourced military
defense teams" for defendants threatened with execution. "No matter how
hard the Bush administration pushes in its waning days, our defense team
is committed to doing everything possible to ensure that this case does
not become a political show trial where prosecutions and convictions
happen in the blink of an eye without regard for due process, the rules of
evidence and the U.S. Constitution," he said.

In New York, U.N. human rights special envoy Philip Alston deemed the
Guantanamo tribunal flawed for the restricted rights accorded detainees
and rules that allowed coerced evidence and hearsay.

"It would violate international law to execute someone following this kind
of proceeding," Alston said at the end of a 2-week U.S. visit.

The Pentagon charge sheet on Nashiri alleges that he joined Al Qaeda in
1998 and rented a residence in Aden, Yemen, where the Cole attack occurred
two years later. He is said to have procured the boat and explosives used
to attack the Cole. The same vessel was used 9 months earlier, in January
2000, in a failed attempt to blow up another U.S. Navy vessel, The
Sullivans.

He was arrested two years after the Cole bombing in the United Arab
Emirates. The CIA hasn't disclosed where it held him for the 4 years
between his capture and his transfer to Guantanamo along with 13 others,
including confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Mohammed and 4 others accused of plotting the U.S. attacks also face the
death penalty if convicted on murder and conspiracy charges.

(source: Los Angeles Times)






ARKANSAS:

Death penalty sought against Marcyniuk


Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Zachariah Marcyniuk of
Fayetteville in the stabbing death of his 24-yearold ex-girlfriend.

Marcyniuk, 28, of Fayetteville, is accused of stabbing Katharine
"Katie"Wood to death on March 9. Wood, of Greenbrier, was a senior English
major at the University of Arkansas.

He is being held without bail in the Washington County Detention Center on
charges of capital murder and residential burglary. He is represented by
Fayetteville attorney W. H. Taylor.

The death penalty is justified because the "defendant committed the murder
in an especially cruel and depraved manner," according to a motion filed
by 4 th Judicial District Prosecutor John Threet.

A 2nd "aggravating circumstance"listed by the state is the defendant's
previous felony conviction and the threat of violence or a substantial
risk of death or injury, according to the motion for the death penalty.

Prosecutors only need to justify 1 aggravating circumstance allowed under
the law. The jury must be convinced that the aggravating circumstances
outweigh the mitigating factors argued by the defense.

Marcyniuk pleaded guilty in July 2005 to aggravated assault and was
sentenced to two years of probation. He was accused in that case of
holding a gun to his head and threatening to commit suicide while driving
70 mph as he held his girlfriend against her will in the vehicle.

That same girlfriend filed 3 orders of protection against Marcyniuk during
2005, according to court records, before he eventually found another
girlfriend and apparently left her alone.

In April, Threet convinced a Washington County jury to recommended the
death penalty - the 1st time in more than 26 years - after convicting
Gregory Decay on 2 counts of capital murder for the shooting deaths of a
Fayetteville couple.

If convicted of capital murder, Marcyniuk either faces life in prison
without parole or the death penalty. He faces between 5 and 20 years of
prison time and a fine of up to $ 15, 000 on the burglary charge.

A trial date set for May 29 was reset for Sept. 22 after a mental
evaluation of Marcyniuk was ordered on May 22. A number of motions have
been filed in the case, but all proceedings against Marcyniuk remain on
hold pending the outcome of the evaluation, Threet said.

According to a warrant affidavit filed by Fayetteville police, officers
were called to the Colonial Arms Apartments, 1211 N. Leverett Ave., at 7:
21 a.m. on March 9 after an apartment resident reported that he had been
awoken by a woman screaming.

Officers found a shoe and a purse, which contained a cell phone, outside
the complex. They used the phone to dial Wood's mother, who told police
that her daughter had been having trouble with Marcyniuk and that she
suspected something was wrong, according to the affidavit.

When officers entered Wood's apartment, they found her body in the
bathtub. There were clear indications of a violent struggle and wounds,
according to the affidavit.

Hours later, according to the affidavit, Marcyniuk visited his parents in
Winslow and told them he had gone to Wood's apartment to confront her
about seeing another man. He said Wood began to scream as soon as she
opened the door and that he grabbed her but could not remember anything
afterward, according to the affidavit.

Marcyniuk asked his parents to care for his dog before telling them he was
tired of hurting them, the affidavit states. He then left, and the
Oklahoma Highway Patrol picked him up later that evening on Interstate 40,
about 30 miles from the Texas border.

(source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)






MONTANA:

Canadian on death row says he's a changed man and at peace


For a man who's spent half of his life awaiting death by lethal injection
for the murder of 2 young cousins 26 years ago, Ronald Smith, formerly of
Red Deer, Alta., seems remarkably at peace with his lot in life.

A troubled teen who first got into trouble at age 15, spent time in an
adult prison by age 16, and was sentenced to death in Montana for fatally
shooting two young men while on a drunken road trip in 1982, he has been
fighting for his life for a quarter of a century.

Smith and friend Rodney Munro had been hitchhiking from Red Deer to
Mexico. Once in Montana, they were picked up by Harvey Mad Man Jr. and
Thomas Running Rabbit.

Smith and Munro eventually kidnapped the two and marched them into a
wooded area where Munro is described as having stabbed one of them, while
Smith shot them both with a sawed-off shotgun.

"I have to live with this. I try to put it out of my mind as much as I can
but unfortunately I wake up every morning and it's a little hard to forget
why I'm here," said Smith, 50, in an interview Monday with The Canadian
Press at Montana State Prison.

"People think that after all this time it's all good and this isn't even a
memory but there's no getting away from it."

Smith, clad in a bright orange jumpsuit, looked much as he did 26 years
ago - shoulder-length brown hair, a moustache and goatee. He was brought
into the tiny cell by two burly prison guards, his hands cuffed at his
waist.

He's 1 of 2 death row inmates at the prison and the only Canadian on death
row in the United States.

The state prison, at the foot of the blue, snow-capped Rocky Mountains, is
surrounded by five-metre high metal fences capped with razor sharp barbed
wire. Armed guards keep a vigil on the towers while the cement maximum
security wing of the facility is set off by itself in one corner.

Although he originally asked to be executed, Smith later changed his mind
and has been fighting his death sentence for over 20 years.

"I was an alcoholic and emotionally unbalanced and I'm neither of those
anymore. I've been forced to face my demons and that's how you deal with
it.

"If you have any brains at all, you face your demons and become a better
person."

Yet Smith, who has a dagger tattoo on his left forearm - a reminder of his
study of the occult many years ago - says he's ready to face death.

"Well, if there is a God, he knows I was screwed up and he either accepts
that or he doesn't so but I don't necessarily believe in the whole God
thing so there's another reason not to be scared," he added.

Smith hopes his lawyers will eventually prevail and that his sentence will
either be commuted to life in prison or he will be allowed to return to
Canada to serve out the rest of his time.

He and his supporters, along with the state of Montana, were caught off
guard when Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced the Canadian
government would no longer seek clemency for Smith or any other mass or
multiple murderer facing the death penalty in a democratic country.

Canada hasn't had a state-sanctioned execution since 1962, and the federal
government has habitually opposed the death penalty abroad in cases
involving Canadians.

"The Canadian government had taken a more active role to see if there was
something they could do to help me out," Smith said.

"Then just out of the blue, all of a sudden they're not going to take an
active role but they're not going to do anything at all. It was a little
bit of a kick in the head."

Smith's lawyer, Greg Jackson, said his client was very despondent when
that happened.

"The Canadians had firmly led us to believe that they supported him. For
them to reverse themselves was just unfathomable," he said outside the
prison.

Smith is resentful that his co-accused, Rodney Munro, entered a plea
bargain that saw him later transferred to Canada, and that the details of
who killed the men were never explored in a courtroom.

"I'm not saying I'm a nice person but if there's 2 of us and one of us is
already on the street how does that make me worse?" asked Smith.

"He has been out since 1997. That's another thing that's a little bit
aggravating is that apparently Day and (Stephen) Harper haven't stopped to
think that there is a fall partner and he's already out so what? Is he
better than I am?"

Montana State Prison has had 3 executions since 1995. Linda Moodry has
been at the prison for the past 26 years and said Smith has been a model
prisoner.

"He's very decent to deal with and respectful," the administration worker
said. "He's probably in his cell 23 hours a day."

(source: Canadian Press)






ILLINOIS:

Illinois bar supports abolition of death penalty in state


The assembly of the Illinois State Bar Association has voted to support
abolishing the death penalty in the state.

The assembly, the policy-making body of the organization, announced the
vote results on June 28, saying that it would support state legislation to
stop the practice. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican, in
2000 suspended state executions after some prisoners were found to have
been wrongfully convicted. Nonetheless, the state's legislature has not
passed legislation halting the practice, leaving the policy in limbo.

"The application of the death penalty in Illinois has been demonstrated to
be flawed beyond any doubt," Jack Carey, the president of the association,
said in a press release. "Our position is that the death penalty is not
fixable and should be discontinued." The assembly, which includes 201
representatives drawn from some of the organization's 35,000 members,
debated the issue last week at its annual meeting and then voted to take
this stance for the first time, said Chris Ruys, a spokeswoman for the
group.

(source: New York Law Journal)

************************

Lawyers group votes for abolishing Ill. death penalty


A prominent association of lawyers is throwing its weight behind trying to
end the death penalty in Illinois for good.

The Illinois State Bar Association's assembly voted Saturday to support
abolishing capital punishment.

The 35,000-member association has supported past death penalty reforms but
for the 1st time says it will actively support abolition legislation. A
moratorium has put executions on hold since 2000.

ISBA President Jack Carey says the association should support ending the
death penalty just as Abraham Lincoln wanted to end slavery because both
are human rights issues.

Carey says the death penalty should be ended to avoid "the grossest
miscarriage of justice imaginable, the death of an innocent person."

The Associated Press)